


Secrecy is A Skill

by SoThisIsAThingIWrote



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Fix-It of Sorts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:00:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22871398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoThisIsAThingIWrote/pseuds/SoThisIsAThingIWrote
Summary: Rey has a secret. A 6 foot 3, freshly redeemed, poorly kept secret.A post TROS, slightly canon divergent dive into silliness
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 56
Kudos: 300





	1. Grain Flakes

**Author's Note:**

> Saw a clip of Adam Driver saying he was addicted to eating cereal...which I mmediately headcanoned to Kylo/Ben....and then this happened.

Food in the First Order Stormtrooper Core generally fell, as a rule, somewhere around halfway to inedible and occasionally unidentifiable. Nutrient pastes were common, particularly when planetside, and shipboard meals were often composed of ingredients that had never seen the light of any sun until being slapped on a stainless steel tray. 

The worst though, the very worst, were the strange dried grain flakes that often appeared on the breakfast counter. Mixed with milk (blue or otherwise) you were left with a goopy mess that had to be eaten quickly before it solidified into a soggy mass at the bottom of the bowl. 

Finn made no secret of how much he'd hated it. Food in the Resistance hadn't been much better, but at least, he had happily told his friends when they were reduced to eating the same ration packs again, there had been no grain flakes. Trust him, you didn't want to try the grain flakes. 

Which is why the sight of Rey excitedly stuffing bag after bag of them into her satchel brings him up short. 

Granted, the whole mission ( _their first since Exegol - had it really only been a few rotations?_ ) had been a little….odd. It had started with a stroke of luck, as it was clear the First Order base had been abandoned. Still, it was locked up tight as a drum and Rose was reaching for her slicing tools (after the disaster that was DJ, she had spent the past year honing her own skills) when Rey hopped over an abandoned speeder, flipped open an access panel and keyed in a code. Seconds later, the whole thing had lit up and practically rolled out a welcome mat, complete with what looked like a hospitality droid poking its head out and chirping " _ welcome, Supre-" _ before it died in a blaze of lightsaber sparks.

"Sorry," Rey said calmly in response to their stares, "it startled me." Saber still in hand, she disappeared into the base, BB-8 rolling after her.

"O...kay," Rose said slowly, returning her tools to her bag. "But where did she get a code?"

For a moment none of them spoke, before Poe broke the silence;

"......the force?"

Inside the base, they got down to work, slicing into the database for any information that may lead to the remaining pockets of First Order troops, ships or bases scattered across the Galaxy. 

Rey, while an excellent pilot and good with a droid and a ship, was no slicer. Nor did she have the history of similar missions that Poe did or the familiarity with First Order tech of Finn. She was, for lack of a better term, the muscle of this mission. But seeing as there was no one to hit over the head with her staff, or stab at with the saber, she hung back and let the others do their work.

At one point, Finn looked over his shoulder to find her staring critically at a row of stormtrooper jumpsuits and a few spare officers uniforms hung along the far wall, tilting her head this way and that, stepping close, then back a few steps, then close again. BB-8 rolled in step with her. Eventually she stopped, shoulders dipping slightly. BB-8 whistled low.

"Too small," she muttered, "nothing we can re-use. We'll have to buy new clothes." There was a beat, then so quietly Finn could barely hear, a soft snort of amusement and "don't be silly, it's hardly your fault."

Finn quirked an eyebrow - of course the droid wasn't to blame for the size of uniforms, what was she thinking- but then Poe was calling both him and BB-8 over. When Finn looked up again, Rey was gone.

Which is how he finds her in the mess hall later, packing the dreaded grain flakes into her bags.

"Rey?" Finn asks, "you're not thinking we're going to eat those, are you?"

Rey doesn't look up, "of course not. They're for-" She stops short, "....me." 

"She does know we're not on rations anymore, right?" Poe asks, coming to stand beside him.

"I….think so?"

Rey looks up at the sound of Poe's voice. "Did you find anything?"

"A few leads," Poe says, "Rose and BB-8 are getting the last of the files now."

"Great!" Rey stands. "Let's go, then." She sweeps past them, satchel bulging, the last few bags of flakes gathered into her arms.

Finn and Poe stare after her. 

Poe scratches his head, "once a scavenger, always a scavenger?"

Finn looks at the empty grain flakes locker, and the one next to it, stuffed full of the far more valuable nutrient paste. 

"I…..guess?"


	2. Huzzah We Defeated the Emperor!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha I'm really not sure if this is even in character but...oh well?

The marketplace of Chandrila's capital city is a wonderous sprawling thing, with goods, and people, from too many planets to count. To Rose, it seems like the whole galaxy has crowded into this one spot. It's hot, it's crowded, it's just this side of slightly uncomfortable, and she's half in love with it. Despite having finished her errands long ago, she sits at the bar of an outdoor cafe, nursing a mug of Jawa beer and people watching. Just the one mug, despite the bar keep's disgruntled looks, because Finn minds their budget lines like a bantha minds her calf. Stormtroopers, ex or not, can apparently count very well - perhaps to make up for their inability to shoot _(that's an unfair stereotype! - a very Finn-ish voice in her head pipes up indignantly, I am better shot than any of you!)._

Rose sets the mug down when she spots a familiar figure across the square. Rey, shoulders square, marching towards the small cluster of clothing shops. Rose flips a coin to the barkeep and slides off her stool, hoping her friend won't mind Rose keeping her company. It would be nice to do something as mundane as picking out new clothes, and to have a conversation that didn't involve Finn and Poe vying to work in "general" as creatively as possible.

By the time Rose reaches the shops Rey has already disappeared inside the one advertising clothing more suited for humanoid frames. Ducking inside herself, Rose immediately finds herself adrift in a sea of fabric of every colour, texture and cut. Voices drift from the back of the shop.

Rose wades past the rows and racks of clothing, waving off a few smiling sales assistants, the cut of each garment gradually growing larger and broader, the colours tending towards darker and darker as she does.While not explicitly stated, it's clear that these clothes are meant for the male of whichever two armed, two legged species cared to shop for them.

She finds Rey at the back of the store, deep in conversation with a human male shop assistant, next to a display of coats and cloaks. Something checks Rose in place, holding her back, hidden behind a rack of voluminous ruffled shirts.

"Width?" The shop assistant asks.

"Width?" Rey blinks

"Across the shoulders," the assistant holds his hands out in front of him, palms facing each other, and spreads them apart, "how wide?"

"Oh! Um-" Rey tilts her head to one side, considering the space between the hands in front of her. She reaches out and moves them father apart. "This wide. No, wait - " the left hand is nudged the merest fraction of an inch further away. Rey smiles. " _That_ wide."

The shop assistant raises an eyebrow, but only says "length?" 

"Length?"

The shop assistant bites down on a sigh. "How _tall?_ " He raises his left hand to the level of his own head. 

Rey nudges it higher. "Tall," she says. " _Tall_ , tall."

"Very well, let me get a few potentials from the stock room. In the meantime, the gloves are over there," he gestures to a counter set along the side of the shop.

"Thank you," Rey says. The shop assistant retreats. "Oh, and no black, please!" Rey calls after him.

Behind her ruffles, Rose's brow furrows in confusion. _Who is she buying clothes for?_ she wondered. _Poe? Finn? Do Poe and Finn need clothes? Who else could she be buying for? Chewie doesn't_ **_wear_ ** _clothes! Is she buying one of them a gift?_

Wholly preoccupied with whatever task she was doing, Rey wanders over to the glove counter to study the offerings laid out there. She picks up a few samples, turning them this way and that. One she lays on top of her own hand, but the fingers droop over the sides of her own and she puts it back down with a huff. 

_Is this a "Huzzah we defeated the Emperor gift?"_

Along the counter is a row of hand mannequins, each displaying different gloves in different sizes. Rey stops in front of one of these mannequins, one finger reaching out to touch its palm. 

_Are we giving "huzzah we defeated the Emperor gifts?" Nobody told me we were giving "huzzah we defeated the Emperor gifts!"_

A moment later, Rey laces her own fingers with the mannequin's. She considers for a brief moment before moving on to the next one with a small shake of her head. The next three are subjected to the same test before being similarly rejected. Rey pauses after the fifth (a warm brown leather with a slightly baggy folded cuff) and smiles. 

_Kriff! I need to get gifts!_

Vaguely, Rose is aware of the return of the shop assistant, his arms full of clothes. She hears Rey ask for a pair of the brown gloves, but barely registers it, backing away slowly through the clothes as she is. Her mind is whirring;

_If Rey is doing clothes, maybe I can do food? Or tools? Does Finn need a new data pad?_

***

"Rose?" Finn asks, hearing the front door slide open. "Is that you?" 

"Don't look!" A slightly frantic voice calls back, "I've got your "Huzzah we defeated the Emperor!" gifts but I haven't wrapped them yet!"

Finn stops. 

_We're giving "huzzah we defeated the Emperor gifts?"_

_No one told me we were doing "huzzah we defeated the Emperor" gifts!_


	3. Team Lightside

Poe Dameron would be the first to admit he doesn't know much about the ways of the Force. Oh sure, he believes in it (hard not to at this point), but like most pilots he prefers things he can actually see. And things he can feel  _ without _ having to close his eyes. Closing your eyes when piloting anything - from land speeder to starship, is generally considered a no-no.

From where he stood on the outside, wielding the Force was kind of like playing some bizarre cosmic game; where the whole point seemed to be you picked a side, and then went around trying to get other force wielders to pick your side too because it was the  _ best _ side, and if they didn't you yelled at them and tried to hit them with your laser sword.

….Except with more limb severing, facial scarring and hostile-taking-over-the-galaxy-ing.

And meditating. 

Lots of meditating.

Poe knows he shouldn't complain. He's very much aware that he is standing here, at this moment, decidedly  _ not _ blown to space smithereens by a sith fleet, largely because Team Lightside beat Team Darkside. He will happily cheer on Team Lightside for the rest of his days, only-

Does there have to be so much meditating? 

Poe stares at the closed door in front of him, a data pad in one hand. For two days, he's been trying to get Rey to fill in her section of the report on their raid on the First Order base  _ (is it really a raid if it was abandoned? Is it more of an "excursion" when you just stroll into the place like you own it? ...where the hell did she find that code?).  _ Pinning the jedi down has so far been about as easy as catching blaster smoke in a bottle, and with only a day before she was set to head off planet again, he is running out of time. If she wasn't off gathering "supplies" (for what, Poe doesn't know), eating (they all learn quickly not to come between Rey and her meal) or training (it takes one rock upside Poe's head, accidental or not, for him to start giving training sessions a wide berth), she was mediating. A lot. 

And Poe gets it. If he had to face off against the Emperor on some forsaken planet that looked like it was ripped straight from a horror holovid, he probably would need some serious "me time" after too.

Not that Rey has been very forthcoming about what exactly happened on Exegol either. 

Still, bureaucracy waits for no man, woman, or jedi, so Poe steps up to the door, first raised and ready to knock.

"It won't be long soon, just a day to wrap things up and then home, I promise."

His knuckles stop an inch from the durasteel. It's Rey's voice, but who was she speaking to?

"Is it raining there? Your shirt is damp - you  _ are _ taking care of yourself right? You're supposed to be staying off the leg - if you want to go outside, there is the wheeled chair the care takers gave us."

The simplest answer of course, would be she's comming someone…..only Poe has Rey's comm in his pant's pocket, picked up from where it had been abandoned in the kitchen. And if she was comming someone, Poe reasons, he should be able to hear whoever it was too, even if only indistinctly. But it was….just Rey. Apparently  _ not _ meditating.

_ Maybe she's talking to someone  _ **_through_ ** _ the Force?  _ Poe thinks. _ Can you talk to people through the Force? Is that a thing? No, it can't be, if that was the case, Leia would have been talking to Skywalker and we would never have had to get that kriffing map. …..Maybe Rey is talking  _ **_to_ ** _ the Force itself? Does she think the Force is like a….person? An always around, always watching person?  _ Poe's eyes dart from right to left.  _ Ah kriff...please don't let the Force actually be a creepy omnipotent person...thing.. _

There is a peal of laughter on the other side of the door. "I'm sorry," Rey says between giggles, "I did warn you about the Porgs- I named that one Blinky. I think he likes you."

_ Ok.  _ Poe thinks, _ To Rey, the Force might just be a creepy omnipotent person thing that may or may note be attractive to Porgs. _ Poe lets his head drop against the door with a thump.  _ Great. Mental note - get Rey to a med bay before she leaves, just in case. I think Exegol might have rattled her cage a little more than she's let on… _

The room on the other side of the door is suddenly quiet, and Poe jerks back when the door whooshes open.

"Poe?" 

"Uh - " Poe stammers. "Hey - Hi." He lifts a hand in greeting, drops it awkwardly at Rey's quirked eyebrow, and digs in his pocket, fishing out her com. "Here. You left it in the kitchen. I was returning it. Because you left it. In the kitchen."

"....Thanks." Rey reaches out and takes it from him, the sleeve of her absurdly overlarge black sweater flopping over her hand as she does. She catches sight of the data pad in his other hand. "Oh, is that the mission report? Do you want me to do my part?"

Poe looks at the data pad in his hand. "You know what? I've got this. Nothing much happened on that mission anyway." He gives her a weak smile, "you can just go back to…."

"Meditating."

"Meditating. Right. Good night Rey."

"....Good night Poe." The door whooshes behind her, leaving him alone once again. 

He turns and takes a few steps down the hall.

"Poe?" Rey is leaning out of her doorway, looking down the hallway to him, "I just want to make sure you are, uh, feeling alright. If you ever, um, need to talk about what happened over Exegol, I can listen. Or we can go to the med bay, there's no shame, or harm, in a few scans..."

Poe blinks. "I'm ok, Rey. Honest."

"If you're sure." 

"Sure, sure."

"Ok, then." She smiles, "goodnight." 

Poe is left alone again, desperately trying to figure out what the hell just happened. Perhaps, in a subconscious effort of self preservation, his mind chooses instead to settle on the most mundane detail it can find;

_ ….was that a giant hole in her shirt? _

Poe tucks the data pad into his coat pocket. Screw the report, he was going to find the most expensive Corellian whisky he could.

Finn can cry about the budget lines later.


	4. How to climb a Wroshyr Tree

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This thing just keeps getting longer. ahahaha. Forgive my made up backstory/characterisation for Jannah, cause TROS wasn't....exactly....helpful....

Jannah knows things. 

A few highlights include: Three languages (including binary), how to pilot both starcraft  _ and _ large animals, how to navigate using stars alone, and how to disassemble and reassemble a blaster in under two minutes. Blindfolded. 

Oh, and how to cook a mean steak on an old scrap of the death star.

The last two she owed to years in the Stormtrooper Corps of the First Order. 

Unlike Finn, Jannah didn't have the means to desert the first time she felt that twinge in her gut telling her that she was fighting on the wrong side. In fact, Jannah had always been told by her superior officers that any sort of "twinge" like that was actually indigestion. Likely from the Grain Flakes. 

So Jannah soldiered on. Until the twinge became a veritable gut punch and she finally stopped and listened to herself. 

Which means, Jannah knows what it's like to walk in a while in darkness, and to stubbornly ignore that twinge in your stomach because your heart may be saying one thing but your brain is saying another. And she knows it's possible to step out of that darkness, and make amends. 

Jannah also knows that there is no way Rey could need that many bacta patches and still be standing upright. Or the various antibacterial ointments, muscle support tape and straps, and the large bottle of multivitamins (gummy - in five fun fruit flavours!).

Either Rey is planning a one woman crusade….or she is playing nursemaid. 

Jannah knows a lot - aside from languages and blaster and steaks, she prides herself on being an  _ excellent  _ reader of body language. Put her the middle of a crowded room and in ten minutes she can tell you who are friends, who are rivals…and who is in love with who. It's a skill she keeps to herself, mostly because Jannah has far better things to do with her time than suddenly become everyone's relationship counselor. 

And maybe it's because of years of practice, maybe it's because of the Force, like Finn thinks….but Jannah knows what she saw through the salt spray on the ruins of the Death Star that day. 

Rey is  _ definitely _ playing nursemaid. 

Well, right now, Rey is standing over her small hoard of medical supplies on the table, looking slightly guilty but making absolutely no move to return them to their respective cupboards. 

Jannah pushes herself up from where she has been leaning against the med bay doors, and heads over to the cupboard dedicated to supplies of a…. _ more personal _ nature. Jannah considers momentarily, before deftly plucking one of everything off the shelves. They'll have to figure out what works for them on their own, she decides….though on second thought, she goes back for a second tube of lubricant. The man is practically a Wroshyr tree. 

Rey's eyes go wide when Jannah adds her selections to the hoard. Red blooms in her cheeks and quickly spreads to her ears...but she makes no protest. 

Jannah grins. "I won't say a word."


	5. The Care And Keeping Of Your Dyad

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still working out how to wrap this up so I'm just going to keep tap dancing here...
> 
> ...Also there is a tiny curl next to his left temple in the throne room scene in TLJ and it destroys me every time

Rey doesn't mean to keep him a secret forever. A secret like that would make it seem like she's embarrassed or ashamed about him, and Rey is not.

Rey is really kriffing proud of him.

Ok..not so proud about the whole Kylo Ren thing, but really proud about everything  _ after _ the Kylo Ren thing- what with finding the strength to step out of the dark, and the coming to help her with nothing but a blaster (which she will need to sit down and have a talk about - else the Solo inability to plan ahead is going to make her go grey early), standing up to the man who had been pulling his strings all his life, saving her and, in turn, the galaxy and all that….

Finn once told her that as a young cadet, everytime he did something well, he got a little sticky flimsiplast gold star. Enough gold stars next to your code on the chart on the wall got you a treat, like sweetened ice after dinner. Rey wishes she had those stars - she would cover him in them if she could, sticking them in that night sky hair - to make it very clear to her friends, to the galaxy, and most importantly, to  _ him _ , just how she feels. 

She doesn't have the sweetened ice either, but the way he blinks at the bag of Grain Flakes Rey proudly presents him, and throws his head back and laughs (that's laugh number three, Rey mentally files away) makes her think they may be an acceptable substitute. They share a bowl, passing the spoon back and forth between them (not that they only have one spoon to their name, it just doesn't occur to either of them to use more than one spoon,) and Rey thinks Finn has it wrong. Grain Flakes are delicious. 

So no, Rey does not intend to keep him a secret. She just wants to keep him  _ safe _ , until his wounds are healed and he can stand on his own two feet again. Literally - on top of several cracked ribs, more lacerations than she cared to count, and a whole right side that was every shade of colour but his own skin, the right leg was broken in two places, as the caretakers pointed out on their surprisingly detailed medical charts. If he doesn't want to limp the rest of his life he needs to stay off of it. Rey had processed this standing around a table with the village elders, until she became aware that Ben was  _ also _ standing (or rather, sort of balancing on his good leg) behind her and looking over her shoulder. There was much squawking from her and the caretakers (and the porgs), and together they (well, not so much the Porgs) managed to herd him back into bed, despite his protests, and the next morning the funny chair with wheels showed up at their door. 

Rey, in contrast, is practically as fresh and pink as a baby - thanks to him (and  _ thank you _ to the Force for her waking up in time to stop him from pouring  _ everything _ he had into her).

So Rey's plan is to keep him safe on Ahch-To for the next little while, to mend, to break away the last pieces of Ren, if any there may be, before reintroducing Ben Solo, in all his 6 foot 3, clear eyed, freshly redeemed glory, to the galaxy.

She should have known, as she answers the rather insistent knocking on their door that morning, that things never go to plan. 

***

They get the coordinates from BB-8, who got them from the Falcon, when Rey had the droid patch into the hyperdrive system to try to find the source of a slightly unsettling new  _ thunk-thunk-thunk _ everytime the ship prepared to jump. Which was completely and totally different from the usual  _ thunk-thunk-thunk. _

At the time, when BB-8 handed over the flight logs of the Falcon with a whistle, Finn thought he was being helpful. 

Now he thinks the astromech just likes to stir up drama.

"That," Finn says helpfully, instead of  _ hello _ , "is Kylo Ren."

Kylo _ kriffing  _ Ren, pushing himself out of a chair to stand in the centre of the surprisingly cosy yet spacious little house they've found her in. 

"No," Rey says calmly, "that is Ben Solo. Who," she raises her voice slightly, "is definitely  _ not _ standing on a broken leg  _ again _ because we've  _ talked about this- _ "

Behind her, Kylo Ren sits back down. 

***

Poe has the beginnings of what promises to be a fantastic headache.

They've all awkwardly crowded into the house at this point, as standing there staring on the front step was letting the Porgs in. At first, the members of the Resistance elect to remain standing, while Rey perches on the arm of the only occupied chair. Finn makes a funny noise at the sight of it, and Poe suddenly remembers the other man telling him once of a vision Rey had, of her and Ren sharing the Throne of the Sith. 

Apparently, Force visions can be unreliable….unless the Sith favoured worn rattan and a decorative throw pillow embroidered with tiny blue fish and orange Porgs.  _ Ok, seriously, what is up with the Porgs? _

And though Poe knows he should be standing in solidarity with Finn, and Rose, and Jannah (who is actually leaning against the wall and looking for all the world like she's trying not to laugh), Poe finds himself sinking down on a similar rattan bench. 

Ben Solo was  _ Kylo Ren? _

Poe and Ben Solo knew each other as children. Their parents used to shove them together in the same room during diplomatic meetings and tell them to play nice, despite the fact that Poe was several years older than Ben, and Poe's idea of "playing" was "what can we flush down the 'fresher tubes?" and Ben's was "let's teach ourselves Dathomiran botany."

_ Ben Solo _ was Kylo Ren?

Poe himself had only ever seen the Supreme Leader without his mask once, and a few glances through grainy quadnocs while trying not to die on Crait really didn't exactly allow for a detailed study. Poe narrows his eyes, staring intently at the man in the chair across the room, trying to match him to the awkward boy he last saw what, twenty years ago? 

General Organa had never said a word. Though, Poe reasoned, that was entirely her right and probably not something she wanted spread around the galaxy, all things considered, either to protect her reputation or to make things easier on her son, should he ever decide to come home.

...Knowing Leia, Poe knew it was the latter, rather than the former.

***

Like BB-8, Jannah is here for the drama. And the gossip she can take back to Kef Bir. Despite recent events, not much usually happens on the ocean moon. 

So she leans back against the wall, and observes. 

She was right, the man is practically a Wroshyr tree. Also, he has very pretty hair. There is one particularly soft curl, right by his left temple... 

….They really should have slapped that mug on the motivational posters in the trooper barracks, rather than Phasma's.

***

When she advocated "saving what we love" over "fighting what we hate," this is really, really  _ not _ what Rose was envisioning. 

But it's clear from the way Rey moves, and speaks, that that is  _ exactly _ what she is doing.

Rose is not a hypocrite. She takes one step forward, then another, then reaches back and takes Finn's hand and tugs him forward too. Together, they sit down next to Poe. 

"Tell us," Rose says, "exactly what happened."

Rey does. She tells them about Exegol and everything that happened there, and she tells them about what came before, Snoke and a red throne room, a cave here on Ahch-To and a fireside conversation after it, a forest on Star Killer. She tells them about how the Force sometimes creates souls that are too big, too bright for just one body. How it's possible to be both two and one and that he is as much her's as her right hand, and she his. 

Through it all, the man in the chair says nothing, but looks at Rey, like his whole world is right there, at his side, perched on the arm of a worn rattan chair.

When Rey is finally done speaking, he reaches out and places one hand over hers.

From her seat next to him, Rey turns and brushes back a stray curl, her fingers pulling dark hair back to momentarily reveal one, rather large, ear…

"Holy kriff," Poe blurts out. "You  _ are _ Ben Solo!" Poe runs his hands through his own hair and barks a laugh. "Ben- _ I can't come out and play, I'm practicing my ancient Rylothian calligraphy- _ Solo was Kylo  _ -I stop blaster fire in mid air and just took out an entire platoon single handedly with my laser sword- _ Ren!" 

Several pairs of wide eyes and silence greet his outburst. Then;

"Surely not a  _ whole _ platoon," Ben Solo murmurs demurely, ".....maybe  _ half." _


	6. Epilogue: they better not come for the fruit rolls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look ma, I finished a multi chapter thing! I hope you enjoyed and would love to hear your thoughts. I'm going to shuffle off now.

Nestled in the lake country of Naboo, it's precise location not exactly a secret, but only known to a handful of people in the whole galaxy, is a house. 

It's a charming thing, with a bright green door. It possesses all the necessary rooms, as well as a cozy library, a large garden, and an airy solarium which lets in copious amounts of light. It's delightfully filled with a hodgepodge of different things which have been gathered from all over the known galaxy; pieces from the luminous egg shell of a Shyyo bird from Kashyyyk, a length of cloth, gossamer and airy as the clouds from Bespin, a curved knife from Mandalore...a string of clay beads with a bright red tie between every fifth one, a vase of dried flowers from Takodana, a faded cushion decorated with a border of tiny fish and Porgs.

Generally, it smells of whatever green thing has been brought in from the garden. In the evenings, it's not uncommon to catch a whiff of Alderaniaan tea. Reliably, it can smell of whatever meal is cooking...or burning, depending on who is in the kitchen.

Lately, it's begun to smell of fresh paint. 

Today, it smells like spiced Naboo wine, and the Catabar spiced rolls Rose has brought all the way from Chandrila - only slightly squashed from when Poe nearly sat on them on the flight over. 

_ Which is not his fault, he maintained by way of greeting, as Rose didn't tell him they were hidden under her coat-  _

_ Which she couldn't, Rose interjected, because if she told him that then he would have eaten them before they were halfway to the mid rim -  _

_ And Finn just rolled his eyes and placed the dented box in Rey's hands with a "Happy 'huzzah we defeated the Emperor' day." _

__

Rey doesn't care that they are slightly squashed, because Catabar rolls are her second favourite rolls (behind the fruit rolls they get in the market in Theed but ahead of vanilla rolls and definitely ahead her odd nostalgia for the dehydrated bread of her youth). She nibbles happily on one now, untouched wine at her knee, content to simply listen to her family laugh and squabble and debate (today - the merits of Grain Flakes. Ben and Jannah for, Finn and Poe, whose never actually had them but the teams need to be equal, against, with Rose presiding). Rey feels a warmth pool in her stomach, no doubt at the wondrous realisation that in five years she has gone from solitary orphan scratching out the days in a wasteland to…. _ this.  _

Rey stills. Scratch that. Turns out that warmth was the sudden and unilateral decision that Catabar was a  _ bad thing.  _ A few feet away, Ben stops speaking mid sentence.

Rey shoots to her feet. "Excuse me," she tries to keep her voice light as her stomach  _ roils _ . Oh, Catabar was a bad,  _ bad  _ thing, apparently. "I need to go check on…..dinner." With that, she turns on her heel and power marches into the kitchen. 

It takes Ben exactly 2.3 seconds to follow her.

"Is it just me," Finn asks, when the door to the kitchen closes behind their hosts, "or are Rey and Ben acting kind of ….odd?"

Poe snorts, reaching for another roll himself. "When it comes to those two, I think " _ odd _ " is just a state of being." He pops the roll into his mouth. 

"It is a little odd," Rose agrees, "I thought we were going into Theed for dinner, didn't we just talk about that?"

"I think what's odd," Jannah says, "is that you are _all_ so delightfully dense."

*****

Ben runs the water and helpfully holds her hair. When she's finished, he hands her a glass with a sympathetic smile. "No Catabar?"

"No Catabar," Rey confirms, glumly. "If they go for the fruit rolls next, I'm staging an intervention."

"You ate four fruit rolls a day ago," Ben says, folding her into his arms and resting his chin on the top of her head, "I think the fruit rolls are safe from the tiny overlords."

Rey snorts, "or they are biding their time….waiting..."

Ben presses a kiss to her hair, one hand coming to rest on the curve of her stomach, feeling the just-barely-there swell of it, hidden today by her loose shirt, and, more importantly, the two tiny candle flames of force energy pulsing within. "We should probably tell the others," he murmurs.

"We will," Rey says, her hand coming to rest over his. "But not yet." She grins up at him, "I like this being our secret."

-END-


End file.
